Tylopilus balloui

Description

This Tylopilus is unmistakable when fresh. Its cap is bright reddish-orange and its brown-bruising pore surface is whitish. White pores age toward tan or pink, & stain brown. The flesh can taste bitter, but not always. Grow solitary or in groups; mycorrhizal, especially with oaks. Massachusetts to North Carolina, west along Gulf Coast to E. Texas.

Tylopilus ballouii is an alternate spelling.

Common names: Burnt Orange Bolete.

Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Mycorrhizal with hardwoods (especially oaks and beech) but occasionally reported with pines; growing alone, scattered, or gregariously; summer and fall; primarily southeastern in distribution but reported from as far north as New York and Massachusetts.

2. Cap

   3–12 cm; convex, becoming broadly convex or nearly flat in age; dry; fairly bald or, when young, finely velvety; bright reddish-orange when young, soon fading to reddish-brown, cinnamon brown, or tan.

3. Pore Surface

   Creamy whitish; bruising brown; eventually brownish; pores circular to angular, 1–2 per mm; tubes to 1 cm deep.

4. Stem

   2.5–10 cm long; 1.5–2.5 cm thick; equal or with a swollen base; dry; bald, or finely reticulate near the apex; usually orangish when young, becoming whitish to yellow or orange—but sometimes bright orange or brownish orange.

5. Flesh

   White; soft; unchanging when sliced, or staining brownish.

6. Odor and Taste

   Taste mild or slightly bitter; odor not distinctive.

7. Spore Print

   Pale brown to reddish-brown or purplish-brown.

8. Microscopic Features

   Spores 6–8 x 4–5 µm; ellipsoid; smooth; hyaline and often uniguttulate in KOH; inamyloid. Hymenial cystidia 35–65 x 5–25 µm; lageniform to widely lageniform; occasionally mucronate; smooth or slightly roughened; golden yellow in KOH. Pileipellis is a partially gelatinized cutis of cylindric elements 2.5–7.5 µm wide; exserted ends cylindric with rounded apices; golden yellow to orangish-yellow in KOH.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: wearethechampignons (Public Domain)

Photo 2 - Author: wearethechampignons (Public Domain)

Photo 3 - Author: alan_rockefeller (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)